Cars you never knew existed part 3: The McLaren MSO HS

WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS?

This the the MSO HS -High sport-, a bridge between the 675lt and the legendary P1, and of course, the 675lt is itself the connection between 650s and P1- Only this time, its more powerful.

SO HOW MUCH POWER EXACTLY?

679 horsepower, compared to the 675’s 666 hp. Still, its no match for the P1’s mighty 903 hp. So while this may be a step up from the LT and 650s, its not a vast as a improvement as ‘bridging the gap’ McLaren will want you to think of it as.

BUT POWER ISN’T EVERYTHING, ISN’T IT.

Absolutely not, the MSO HS isn’t all about power: it has a carbon-fibre roof, wing and bonnet, and like most other McLarens, a carbon tub. All this results in a car 40 kg lighter than the 675lt and a 100kg lighter the 650s. Which is results is a incredible 536 horsepower per tonne figure, compared to the 449 of the 650s.

ALRIGHT. AND THIS IS A RARE CAR?

Very. There are only 25 of these in the world, and they very rarely go up for sale, and when they do, fetch well above half a million.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT IT

I’ll be very honest, there’s not much. Think of it as a 675lt with a aero kit, really. Because that’s what it is. But there some interesting twist: For example, the air con controls have been moved to the center console instead of the doors to save weight, much like what Volvo has with the EX30, but unlike the Volvo, this comes with 3-point harnesses and the guarantee that no two cars will be the same. It Also has three camera dotted out across the car, which collects data that you will be able to analyze in the form of lap times and telemetry of some description. In short, a 675lt on steroids.

OK. AND ALL MSO HSs WILL BE LIKE YOU DESCRIBED?

No actually, they won’t. According to McLaren, owners have had the chance (It says will have the chance, but of course, this is the past) to customize every part of the car, bar the chassis. Meaning, that specs will likely change from car to car. But we really only know about the first one, as that’s the only one McLaren has opened up about- the one in the featured image. The other one, we don’t know. 

WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO KNOW?

If you look online for articles on this, of which there aren’t many, you’ll see a lot of references to the P1 GTR, and rightly so. Because as it turns out, it shares a few parts with it. For example, it has Alcantara seats instead of leather- saving 3.5 kg. if you go for full racing seats though- what the P1 GTR has, that becomes 15 kg. The spoiler is in similar shape to the P1 GTR’s and so are those sharp canards intersecting with the front splitter end plate. You also need to know that I’ve now run out of things to say, and therefore concludes part 3. Part 4 is coming though.

-I know I posted this a bit late, but hopefully you enjoyed it-

Next up: THE FERRARI 456 GT VENICE

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